Running With Wolves
by September Freya Thorn
Summary: Jacob Black is a boy she saw in a picture. That's what Marie Swan thinks. She never expected to actually meet him. But plans change. Suddenly Marie is on the run, and when she's sent to her uncle in dreary Forks she learns there's a lot more to Jacob than she'd realised. And then they meet...
1. Chapter 1

Jacob

Somewhere in mid-run, I felt myself morph but I barely paid attention. The thoughts swirling around my head were too powerful for me to notice anything else. Even the rain against my skin couldn't tear me out of the storm that was raging in my head.

Bella was marrying him. That bloodsucker. Why? Why? Why? Why?

What was so special about him? He was an evil, parasitical, uber-controlling life-drainer. Why was she marrying him? _Why?_

I wished I was anyone in the world but myself. I wished I was anywhere in the world but here. I wished it wasn't raining. And I wished the girl I loved wasn't going to die at the hands of her boyfriend.

_Why?_

There was no point in asking. I ran on into the night, away from this place. I would leave and never come back. I would forget her. I would forget everything.

_I would..._


	2. Chapter 2-Sketches

Marie

I would get this sketch right. I would. I _would._

Very, very carefully, I traced the lines of the elf boy I was drawing with my pencil. I couldn't mess it up. I couldn't mess this one up...

I had spent fifteen minutes on this drawing already. I wouldn't usually spend that long on what was only a small sketch at the edge of my page, but this one was special.

This was the boy.

The boy was a tall, dark haired Native American guy I had seen in a photo we were sent a while ago, hanging out with my cousin Bella in some kind of garage. The photo had been sent to my dad by his brother Charlie, because dad had complained he always sent Charlie photos of us and Charlie never sent any back. So from the looks of it, Charlie had just walked out and snapped a bunch of random pictures, mostly of his daughter Bella. I was glad Bella lived with Charlie now. Even though he was solitary by nature, I thought he'd been lonely before she came along, but now...

Anyway, the boy. Yes. He was in just one photo, that one showing him and my cousin perched in a garage I didn't recognise, working on a battered old motorbike, but somehow...somehow I couldn't get him out of my head. His warm smile, his rough hands, his messed up dark hair...

I couldn't get him out of my head. I knew it was crazy, and believe me I felt like a stalker, but every time I looked at that photo all I felt was...I wanted to meet him in real life.

I knew that wasn't a good idea, and it wouldn't be possible anyway.

But nothing could stop me from at least drawing him. Drawing him as an elf, so my parents and brother wouldn't recognise him, but that didn't change the fact it was him I was drawing. _I _knew it was him.

I really was turning into a stalker.

"Dominic, look!" I said, holding my drawing up for inspection to my brother, who was playing video games on the sofa above me. I was trying hard not to be distracted by the noise of it. My brother looked at the drawing and smiled and I thought how much I loved him. He was taller than me now and it was just slightly annoying, but he was still my little brother. He always would be.

_Bang. Bang. _My brother and I both turned our heads, wondering where the noise was coming from. I only realised it was someone knocking on the door when I heard my dad say

"Yes, what is it?"

"It's the bailiffs."

"Bailiffs? We-we don't owe any money." I could hear the confusion in dad's voice.

"Maybe not, but we're still here to collect your stuff."

I looked at Dominic and he looked back at me. What? What was going on?

One of the boys, a tall blonde guy, barged through the door, pushing my dad aside, and marched into the room where we were sitting.

"These your kids?" he asked. There was something odd about his accent – he was either foreign or from another state – but I was too distracted to work it out.

"I think you should leave", I said, standing up.

"Oooh, sassy, this one." He smirked and his friends came to stand behind him.

"Get out", I whispered.

"Wait a minute", he said, holding a finger up as if to silence a two year old. Then he turned and, with one swift motion, unhooked all the wires form the telly and dropped it into a bag. It was surreal. The bag was a huge, dark sack just like you'd see a burglar with in a kid's picture book and I wondered for a moment if this was a dream. Things like this didn't just happen in the lives of people like me. But I could see the guy looking at me, and then he winked and said, "see you later, sweetheart", and walked out, his cronies on his heels.

That was the first time the boys came to our house.


	3. Chapter 3

Marie

The boys came once a week. If we didn't let them in they'd smash a window. Then they'd stand around taunting us for a few minutes before taking some expensive piece of equipment and leaving with it. We tried contacting the police, but they never did anything. We talked about fighting them, but they seemed far too dangerous. So in the end there was only one solution.

"I can't believe this is happening", I wept as I loaded my belongings into the taxi my parents had hired. The ride was going to cost a fortune, but that was far from our biggest problem. "There has to be some other way."

"Marie, we don't know who these boys are", my mum said. "They've obviously bribed the police not to do anything. They could be dangerous. We need to get away from them."

"But why can't I come with you?"

"We've been through this. It's better if we separate. At least then we can figure out who they're really after." She sighed. "There's no need for you to worry, you're going to be with Charlie! He'll look after you."

"And he's a cop", I muttered, slightly cheered up. If the boys _did _follow me, they'd learn my uncle wasn't so easy to bribe as the local police! He'd send them straight to jail. I hoped they _did_ follow me. "But I'm going to miss you all so much! And what about when school starts again?"

"We're hoping this will be over by then." Dad looked grim. "If it's not - we'll see."

I sobbed even harder as I hugged each member of my family and climbed into the taxi, not even caring what the driver thought about my display of emotions.

Neither he nor I spoke during the long journey to Forks. I didn't care. I was so upset I felt like I never wanted to speak again.

When the taxi pulled up, it was right outside Charlie's house and my uncle came out and paid the taxi driver. Then, when all my luggage was lying on the pavement, Charlie looked at me and I looked at him and neither of us spoke for a while.

"Well", he said in a faltering voice, "I guess you're in time for the wedding at least."

"What wedding?"

"Bella's."

I gasped.

"She's -she's getting married? To who?"

"Edward Cullen."

Of course. Edward. The boy Bella had told me about over the phone so long ago. I smiled, delighted for her, but Charlie, I couldn't help noticing, looked anything but delighted.

"When did you find out about this?" I asked.

"Just now."

"Where is she?" I wanted to congratulate her!

"She just left. With Edward. Come on in." Charlie walked through the door and flopped onto the sofa, looking like all the energy had gone out of him. I realised this had probably not been the best time to turn up and followed him meekly.

"Aren't you happy?" I asked. "For Bella?"

"Sure, sure, I'm delighted for her." Charlie turned to me. "So are you alright? What's happening with your family? Roman only explained it briefly to me…"

He broke off because he could see my face had turned white. And the reason for that was the poster on the kitchen table. The _Missing _poster. The _Missing _poster with the face of Jacob Black, the boy from the photo, printed across it in bold, slanting colours.

He was missing.


	4. Chapter 4-Night Talk

"What is it, Marie?" Charlie asked me, concern written across his face. I pointed weakly at the missing poster and then slumped into the chair beside his sofa.

"Oh. That." Charlie moved some plates and bowls until the poster was covered. "Bella doesn't like looking at it either. I just took it out…to see it. To see if there was any way I could improve it, because we haven't heard from anyone who's seen him yet."

"How did it happen?" I asked, my mouth dry. Charlie shook his head angrily.

"If _some _people had been more sensitive…no." He stopped himself. "That isn't fair. But Jacob…that boy…he was a good kid. A really nice one. And he started going through some stuff…" He swallowed. "Do you remember how Bella was last year? When she went crazy because…well, because her boyfriend left? Well, Jacob went through some stuff like that too and…no one was really there for him like they should have been. And now he's missing."

This was terrible. I'd forgotten my own troubles for a moment in light of how awful this was. Jacob Black didn't ever deserve to be hurt or depressed. I'd felt sure of that from his picture, and Charlie's opinion had confirmed it. And he'd run away or something because no one had been there for him…I imagined how lonely, how abandoned he must have felt and wished I'd been there. _I _would never have turned my back on Jacob...

Then I wondered again why I was so obsessed with a boy I'd never even met. But really, even if he'd just been some random kid I'd heard nothing about, I'd still have been upset for him. What Charlie had described was horrid.

The two of us didn't talk much after that. That was o.k.; we were a family of quiet people and we liked it that way. But the sports show Charlie was watching did nothing to distract me from my thoughts about Jacob and I started to feel more and more depressed. I wanted to help him. I wanted to do something. I wanted to…

But then the front door opened and I heard the sound of footfalls in the hallway. Bella! It had to be! I jumped up, wanting to see her, and Charlie called "Bells, look who's here." My cousin appeared in the doorway and when she saw me her expression froze for an instant. Then it broke into a grin and she ran forward to hug me.

"Marie! What are you doing here? Have you brought the others?"

"It's just me", I said, feeling again that sense of loss that my family were elsewhere and I didn't know when I'd see them again.

"How come?"

"I'll explain later." I really wasn't up to explaining things right now. "Congratulations!"

"Thanks." She lowered her head almost shyly. "I know it's unbelievably naff and everything getting married at eighteen but…it feels right somehow."

"It's called love", I said and she laughed. "Were you planning on ever telling us?" By us I meant my family.

"I would have called you tonight. You _can _come to the wedding, can't you?"

"I can." But I couldn't speak for the others. "Tell me about the arrangements. And when it is."

"Well…Alice is doing most of it." Bella smiled and cleared her throat. "Alice is Edward's sister."

"What, does she want to be a Professional Wedding Planner or something?"

"Not really." Bella smiled again. "I'm, uh, really tired, so I'm going up to my room. But...I'll talk to you tomorrow morning and we can catch up properly, o.k.?"

"O.k.", I said, slightly puzzled. It wasn't even that late. But I guessed if she was tired…

In the middle of the night, I woke up, my throat parched and burning. I sighed, mentally calculating if I'd drunken enough water last night, but I couldn't really remember. So I climbed slowly to my feet and across the corridor to the staircase. In the kitchen, I drank three glasses of water and poured myself a fourth, which I carried upstairs with me. But as I was passing my cousin's room, I heard voices speaking.

"Are you still sure about this, Bella?"

"Why would my parents agreeing to our wedding ever change my resolve to go through with it, Edward?" My cousin asked quietly. Edward was her fiancé, I remembered and he was in her room right now! Fair enough, I supposed, but did Charlie know about this?

"I just thought you seemed a little – unhappy - today."

"It's not you that's making me unhappy," she said with a sigh.

"It's Jacob isn't it?"

There was a pause. And then...

"Edward, I can't get his face out of my mind. I can't stop thinking - thinking it's my fault. I just - it seems like such a bad omen", Bella whispered.

Her fault? Why would Jacob Black's disappearance be her fault?

"Don't worry about omens. To most people, vampires would be a bad omen. But not to you, apparently." There was wonder in his voice and I wondered if that vampire comment was some kind of in joke between them.

"I'm so worried about him. Is there - nothing at all we can do?"

"I've looked for him. We've all looked for him. But let's face it; he doesn't want to be found by any of us."

"What if I go over and talk to Billy tomorrow morning?"

Another silence.

"We won't be able to come with you."

"But I'll stay away from any werewolves. I'll just talk to Billy, I swear. And my cousin can come with me, if you think that would be safer."

"Alright", Edward muttered reluctantly and I wondered briefly if I could be dreaming because this conversation wasn't making any sense. Then he added, "and by the way, your cousin's listening to this."

I bolted. I ran as fast as I could, without spilling the glass of water, back to my bed where I climbed under the covers and closed my eyes, pretending I was asleep. But they didn't come in. And when I woke up the next morning, the glass of water by my bed was the only thing to remind me it hadn't been a dream.


	5. Chapter 5

Marie

Actually that wasn't the only sign I hadn't been dreaming.

As soon as I'd sat down to breakfast, Bella came stamping down the staircase and asked me if I wanted to come with her to La Push. Of her fiancée there was no sign at all. I wondered how he got in and out without being noticed. Then I mentally shook my head because it was none of my business. I did wonder why they had to hide it from Charlie though. It wasn't like he was some strict old fashioned dad who believed in no sex before marriage or else.

But I told Bella I'd go with her to La Push. I needed to find out more about this Jacob thing. When I saw her car, though, I couldn't help gasping.

"Bella, what is - that?"

"That's my new car. The old one broke." She saw my face and laughed. "Yeah, I know it's very...over the top. But it was Edward's idea."

"It looks like it belongs to someone in the Mafia", I said.

"I wouldn't go that far."

"Are those windows _bullet-proofed?"_

"Yeah. I guess they are." She laughed. "Edward's kind of...weird about these things."

"How did you _afford _this?" Because I thought it had to have cost millions.

"He's kind of rich too."

"Bella? Are you gold digging?" I teased.

"No. He just...happens to be rich. Come on." She climbed into the front seat so I took the passenger, horribly aware of my old jeans against the plush leather of the seat, and of the highlighter stains I'd managed to get on them from earlier. I felt like a beggar who'd just been invited into the house of a film star. Just how rich _was _Edward?

Just like with Charlie, I didn't talk much to Bella on the drive to La Push. But this time there was a tension. She might not be aware of it, but I definitely was. Because...what was going on with her? Seriously? There had been far too much strangeness since I'd got here. First of all there was Edward. Not just the fact he was in her room without Charlie's knowledge, but the way he'd managed to get in and out without being noticed and the way he'd known I was standing outside the door when I didn't think I'd been making any noise. On its own none of that was that strange and normally I'd have passed over it. But all together...And then on top of that, there was Bella's guilt over Jacob's disappearance and the way that her fiancée was apparently so rich and overprotective that he'd buy her _this _car and why in the world, if Edward was so rich, did Charlie have a problem with his marrying Bella? The boy I'd heard talking last night had sounded nice enough, if you could eliminate the strangeness, not anyone most dads would freak out over their daughter dating. Not forgetting the implication La Push was somehow dangerous and the references to werewolves and vampires. Put together...well, I didn't like it. I didn't like any of it.

I wasn't sure, when we arrived at La Push, whether to be relieved or frightened. I tried to look calm as I hopped out of the car to join Bella and followed her to one of the houses. But it was hard not to goggle when I saw the boy who opened the door. Tall, tanned and _completely _muscled and on top of that shirtless, with some kind of Celtic tattoo around his shoulder - who exactly did he think he was? Not that he wasn't hot, because he was. But um - seriously? Shirtless in _this _weather? He couldn't possibly expect us to believe he was too hot. He was obviously trying to show off.

Interestingly, my cousin's expression, as she looked up at the boy, was neither surprised nor impressed.

"Paul!" she said, not sounding pleased. "What are you doing in Jake's house?" The boy's eyes flickered for a minute.

"Can't tell that to you, Bella", he said. "Who's this?"

"This is my cousin Marie."

"Hello." The word might be friendly enough, but the way Paul looked at me wasn't.

"Look, we need to speak to Billy", Bella said. "It's really urgent. So could you please...?"

For a moment I thought Paul was going to refuse. But then he sighed and stood aside and Bella and I cautiously walked into Jacob Black's house.

"What do you want?" was the first thing the man in the wheelchair asked when he saw me and Bella. His tone was resentful and I had the impression _again _that there was something going on I didn't know about.

"We want to ask you about Jake." Bella sounded nervous and as she spoke she faltered and ran her hand through her hair several times.

"What about him?"

"What was the last thing he said to you before he went missing?"

Billy looked from one of us to the other, as if considering.

"Well, Jacob didn't really say much but...he got your invitation to the wedding and I think that kind of did for him."

"He got an invitation?" Bella's face was a mask of horror. "He wasn't supposed to get an invitation!"

"Well, he got one."

Jacob was her friend...wasn't he? Why wouldn't she want him to come to her wedding? I tried to think but the only reason I could come up with was that there had been more between her and Jacob than just friendship and that was why the invitation had "done for him". That upset me. I couldn't explain why to myself, but it did.

"So after he got the invitation...what happened then?"

"Well, he sort of ran out of the house. And he never came back. Leah claims he talked to her, but then he ran off into the forest and we haven't heard anything from him." He glared at Bella. "And I don't appreciate your dad's attempts to help by putting up all those Missing posters."

"I know. I'm sorry." Bella hangs her head and I, for the first time yet, feel compelled to speak.

"Why wouldn't you want Missing posters up for your son?"

"Because Jacob will come back when he chooses." Billy glares at me this time instead of Bella.

These people are crazy. Seriously, there's something wrong with them, there's something wrong with _all _of them. The feelings of homesickness catch me unawares and suddenly I'm practically in tears, ready to scream _I want to go home! I want to go home! I don't want any of this, this mystery, this strangeness, I just want to see my family and friends again, without being bothered by those STUPID boys who drove us away, is that really so much to ask?_

"Are you alright, Marie?" Bella asks me and I nod because I don't have a choice, I can't tell her the truth. She turns again to Billy and asks "Do you have any idea at all where your son is?"

"No. But he'll come back."

"Thanks." The word sounds hollow in my cousin's mouth. She beckons to me and turns and walks from the house. And when we're in the car, she doesn't speak a word the whole way, though there are tears streaming down her face.

I don't know what to do.

My fingers, I realised, were shaking slightly as I dialled the number. Phone to my ear, I waited with baited breath whilst I heard it ring. And then...

"Hello? Marie?"

"Mum", I whispered. "Are you ok?"

"Yes, it's fine here, there's no sign of trouble. You?"

"Not for me either. I miss you."

"I know, but if none of us hears from those boys soon we might be able to go back."

"Really?"

"Yes, really. Now I have to go..."

"O.k., bye bye", I whispered. I paused for a moment to take everything in - I hadn't even had the chance to tell her about Bella getting married - before calling up first my brother and then my dad. Neither of them had heard from the boys. It seemed like we might really have lost them.

But if we had, surely they'd find us again when we went back home...

I couldn't sleep at all that night. My thoughts span between images of the boys, images of my family and images of Jacob Black.

I just had too much to worry about.


	6. Chapter 6-Wedding Time

Marie

The next day I spent almost the whole morning drawing. Charlie fished some paper out from a cupboard somewhere and since I had nothing else to do apart from watch the sports with him, I decided to use it to draw everyone I'd met here in Forks. At first I was just going to use my pencil to shape Bella and Charlie, but then that boy Paul somehow turned up in one of the drawings and it wasn't long before Billy Black, and finally his son, crept into the images as well. I spent longer drawing Jacob then I did the others, sketching out every line in precise detail and trying to make sure I got him exactly right. Drawing him made me feel happy, but at the same time also overwhelmingly sad because he was missing and he might be in danger.

And I was still acting like a stalker. There was no way around it.

"Do you have any colours?" I asked Charlie because even though I hadn't coloured in any of my other drawings, I wanted to try capturing the exact tones of Jacob's skin. But Charlie didn't know where I could find colours and I hadn't brought any with me, so I had to make do with what I'd done. I looked at it for a long long time before I was distracted by the sound of voices in the corridor.

"And what's _he _doing here?" a voice I recognised as Charlie's demanded.

"He wanted to meet Marie." This time it was my cousin who spoke.

"_Did_ he?" The hostility in Charlie's tone was unmistakable.

"Sorry to intrude, Mr Swan. I won't be long." I recognised that voice, it was Edward's! I got up quickly and scurried to the hallway, where a beautiful boy was talking to Charlie and Bella. _He _was Edward? _He _was Bella's fiancée? He was that beautiful as well as being a millionaire? Bella really had made a catch.

"Are you Marie?" he asked me, although there was a slight tone to his voice that made me think he already knew the answer to that.

"Yeah, this is her." Bella said, ducking her head awkwardly. The boy smiled at me and if I hadn't known he was Bella's fiancée and so off limits I think my heart would have hit the floor.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Marie", he said. "You mean a lot to Bella so you're important to me too."

Uh...o.k.

"I've heard a lot about you as well", I told him. "And I think you and Bella are great together." They both smiled and Charlie frowned at me, but I didn't pay any attention to that.

"Anyway". Edward glanced out of the window quickly and then let his eyes travel back to us. "I'd better be going. Alice wants to talk to me about wedding stuff." He smiled again and walked out of the room so gracefully it almost looked like he was flying. Charlie humphed and stalked to the kitchen, whilst Bella and I looked at each other.

"Charlie doesn't like Edward much, does he?" I asked.

"Not much. It's a - a thing from what happened on our first date", she said. "I scared Charlie really badly with that..."

"Well I like him, anyway", I told her. "And congratulations. Again."

"Thanks", she said with a smile. "Again."

It went on like that for a while. I met the rest of Edward's family and they were nice, but just as odd as him. Alice recruited me to help plan the wedding and soon I had barely any free time, which was fine with me because free time got me thinking and thinking got me depressed. Every so often I called up my family to talk and there was still no sign of those boys. And then it was the day of the wedding.

In the morning Bella, who did all the cooking in the house, served up pancakes for me and Charlie, though she didn't eat any herself. I felt pretty guilty about that, because why should Bella have to cook on her wedding day? But I didn't offer to make the food instead because I didn't know how. Cooking was not my speciality. Before I knew it, Alice was there and tugging me and Bella towards her Porsche.

"You're all packed and ready", she said to Bella.

"Alice, I wish you would let me pack my own things!"

"It would have given too much away", Alice said, meaning about where they were going for the Honeymoon I assumed.

"And denied you an opportunity to shop."

I didn't think Alice needed another opportunity to shop. She'd already brought wedding clothes for herself, her family, me and Bella. Honestly I think I'd be a bit annoyed if my sister-in-law controlled my wardrobe, but then I thought if Bella really minded as much as she always claimed she did then she'd stand up to Alice more.

"Do you like it?" Alice asked me, gesturing to the house she'd just pulled up in front of. I could only stare. Three miles of drive were wrapped in hundreds of thousands of twinkle lights, with white satin bows. It was completely breathtaking. Suddenly I was very, very jealous of my cousin because whatever _my _wedding was like, it was not going to be this beautiful. I brushed that thought aside, wondering why I was even thinking about getting married when I was only eighteen. Still gazing around me like an idiot, I followed Alice and Bella into the Cullens bathroom where Alice had laid out a huge range of beauty products. She directed me to help her apply them to Bella's face. I'm no stranger to make-up but compared to Alice I'm slow and clumsy and I felt so stupid next to her that I kept making mistakes. It got even worse after Rosalie came in and started on Bella's hair.

"Sorry", I muttered when I accidentally smeared eye shadow down the side of her face again.

"Relax, Marie", Alice told me. "You're doing fine."

So that was what I tried to do, fine, and gradually it started to work. I stopped making mistakes at least. When we were done I was even more amazed by Bella than I had been by the lights outside. She was truly, radiantly beautiful. Once they'd put her in the dress, Alice and Rosalie moved onto me. They curled my hair and did my make up and gave me an odd, rainbow coloured wrap dress to wear. I put it on uncertainly, not sure it really went with what Bella or any of the others were wearing, but they assured me I looked nice so I took their word for it.

When Renee came up the stairs I backed out of her way and into a corner because I didn't really know Bella's mum and I felt shy. Even when Charlie joined her, I stayed where I was and didn't say much. But just as we were about to go down to the reception, Bella wrapped me in a hug.

"I love you, Marie", she said in a choked up sounding voice. "Don't forget that."

"I love you too", I whispered back, but I wondered why she felt the need to have this conversation now. After all, it wasn't like we wouldn't see each other again after this wedding.

Me and Alice were the bridesmaids so we had front row seats and I sat there grinning through the reception. Dinner was a bit more of a problem because I was seated at a table with Billy Black, who kept on staring at me for no reason I could think of. I was next to a boy called Seth Clearwater who kept trying to talk to me, but I was distracted by Billy. I felt sure he didn't like me.

And then the dancing began. Clumsy as I was, I didn't think dancing was a good idea, but when Seth asked me I agreed because I didn't want to sound rude. I let him take my hands and lead me onto the floor and then I sort of just copied everything he did. I thought we had to look pretty stupid, but at least nobody laughed.

After I'd danced with Seth my head started to hurt, so I went to sit in the corner with a glass of water. Then some guy named Eric came up and asked if I wanted to dance but at that point my phone went off, so I went outside to take it. It was an unknown number.

"Hello?" I asked, walking away from the wedding arch and chairs outside. "Who is that?"

"Who are _you?" _asked a boy's voice. "Are you Marie Swan?"

"Ye-e-s", I answered slowly, unease in my gut. The boy sounded like he was trying to disguise his voice and I didn't know why he'd do that.

"Where are you right now?" he asked me.

"Sorry, who is this?"

"Where are you now?"

"I'm not going to tell you that until you tell me who you are." The voice was starting to frighten me.

"Ah, for fuck's sake!" There was an angry exhalation of breath on the other line and then he hung up. For a minute I just stared at my phone, wondering what all of that had been about. But then I shrugged and put it back in my dress pocket.

All the time I'd been on the phone I'd been walking away from the Cullen house and now I was standing in some trees, unsure of where exactly I was. And I could hear voices…

"I'm going to try to remember you like this. Pretend that-"

"That what? That I died?"

That caught my attention. There was something very disturbing about those words. And it was my cousin's voice which had spoken them.

Subtly, trying not to make any noise, I moved towards the source of the voices.

"No. But I'll see you this way in my head. Pink cheeks. Heartbeat. Two left feet. All of that." The male voice was deep and, to my ears sort of melodic. But it wasn't one I'd ever heard before.

"What is it, Jake? Just tell me. You can tell me anything."

Jake. Jacob. Oh my God. And the next minute I could see him, his arms around my cousin, both of them spinning gently in the centre of the clearing. Oh my God. He was alive. He was safe. My cousin thought he would prefer it if she was dead. Oh my God. Did Edward know they were here? I was eavesdropping on something I had no right to. I wanted to turn and run from here, but they'd hear me.

So instead I had to stay where I was.


	7. Chapter 7-Dance

Jacob

"I-I...I don't have anything to tell you", I whispered, wondering how I was going to live when it happened. Maybe I'd be fine? But maybe I'd always go round feeling like part of my soul was cold and lifeless somewhere out there. Who could tell.

Maybe coming back here had been a mistake. Maybe I should have stayed away. I'd run off to _escape _this wedding after all, and yet as soon as it actually happened I came trotting straight back wagging my tail like some loyal dog from an old folktale.

I remember a folktale once about a dog who's master left him to guard a baby. Whilst the man was gone wolves came into the house and tried to attack the baby. The dog fought off the wolves and drove them away, killing one, but in the process he got blood on his muzzle and there was also blood on the baby, from where one of the wolves had got a bite in. When the master came back he saw this and thought the dog had attacked the baby, so he took it out back and shot it. Then he found the body of the wolf, and saw it's wounds and realised how the blood had really got on the dog's muzzle and then he was sorry.

But too little too late, you know.

Figures I'd remember that story now.

"Oh please", Bella muttered. "Spit it out." I wished she didn't know me so well. I wished she didn't seem so perfect for me half the time, the half when she wasn't talking about _him._

"It's true. It's not...it's-it's a question." I just didn't know how to say it. I was so afraid that if I upset her she'd get up and walk away and I'd never see her again. At least not alive. I couldn't bear that. "It's something I want _you _to tell _me._"

"Ask me." Her brown eyes blinked up at me like she was the helpless love interest I'd just recued in some stupid superhero story and for a moment I wished she was because then she wouldn't be marrying that _monster._

"I shouldn't."

"It's not tonight, Jacob."

The relief I felt was irrational. Tonight, tomorrow, next week...what did it matter? It was all the same really.

"When?" I asked, wondering if I really wanted to know. Knowing or not knowing...which was worse? If I knew when it was I'd be morbidly counting down till the hour, not able to think of anything else. But at least I'd know when it was over. If I didn't know then I'd always be wondering if it was happening now...

"I don't know for sure. A week or two, maybe."

"What's the holdup?"

"I just didn't want to spend my honeymoon writhing in pain."

Honeymoon. God, I wished she didn't have to be so disgustingly traditional about it. Somehow, it seemed to make the whole thing sound worse. She was eighteen, for God's sake. I didn't care if she was in love or whatever. This whole middle aged wedding charade was ridiculous.

"You'd rather spend it how?" I asked. "Playing checkers?"

"Very funny."

"Kidding, Bells. But honestly, I don't see the point. You can't have a real honeymoon with your vampire, so why go through the motions? Call a spade a spade. This isn't the first time you've put it off. That's a _good _thing though. Don't be ashamed of it."

I wasn't sure why this made her so angry. Maybe it was the implication that some part of her didn't really want to be a vampire. But she yanked her hands away from mine and hissed

"I'm not putting anything off. And yes I can have a real honeymoon! I can do anything I want! Butt out!"

My mind stopped. That was literally what happened. Every sense, every thought, every feeling left my brain. All I had was one question.

_What did she mean by a real honeymoon? Did she mean the same thing as I had? Because surely she couldn't..._

"What?" I gasped. "What did you say?" Because I wanted her to tell me I was wrong more than I could recall ever wanting anything.

"About what...? Jake, what's wrong?"

"What do you mean? Have a real honeymoon? While you're still _human? _That's a sick joke, Bella!"

"I said butt out Jake." She looked furious. "This is _so_ not your business. I shouldn't have...we shouldn't even be talking..."

I seized hold of her, shouting something, though I didn't know what it was. I didn't even know what I was doing. That-_that sickening leech _was telling me to let go of Bella and all I could think was what he was planning on doing with her and in my mind was rage, rage, rage. And then somehow Bella was away from me and now it was my shoulders somebody had hold of - _Seth, _I dimly registered - and I knew I was about to morph so I tried to push him away but he wouldn't let go and the world was spinning, spinning, spinning, with me riding on the heat of my own anger and the worst thing was that it felt _good_ being this angry, like it wasn't even about Bella anymore, but of course it was, he was going to kill her, he was going to kill her, HE WAS GOING TO KILL HER and this whole wedding was just a sick sick farce because for some reason the stupid traditionalist murderer needed to be married to her before he could do anything and it was just SICK SICK SICK...

"I'll kill you", I roared at Edward, my rage pounding satisfyingly in my ears.

"Jake, no!" Seth was wailing but I forgot about him. I pushed all thoughts from my head except me and the leach. Sam was in front of me in wolf form but I didn't care...and then...

"Marie", Edward said, pulling someone from behind a tree. Someone whose eyes widened in horror at the fact he'd known she was there. Someone who flinched at the touch of his cold skin. Someone who looked at Sam like she wanted to run and like she'd never seen a werewolf before.

And I'd never seen her before, but she was the most beautiful girl I'd ever laid eyes on. Her rich brown eyes, full of kindness and intelligence and right now fear, seemed to pull me forwards and even though on some level I was aware I wasn't moving, in my mind I was bounding to her side, first as a wolf, then as a human. I saw her wrapped in my arms and I saw her sitting on the beach telling me jokes. I saw both of us running through the trees with the wind in our hair and I saw her looking up at me with love in her eyes and me looking down with exactly the same expression. Suddenly, this girl was the most important thing in the world. Suddenly, everything else was dull and lifeless and she was the only thing that really mattered. And if she wasn't here...then I didn't want to be either. I loved her.

I'd imprinted.

And then things got complicated.


	8. Chapter 8-Confusion

Edward

I flinched from the anger in Jacob's mind.

I knew I deserved it.

I knew I deserved for him to kill me.

How did I dare be happy on this day, given what we were leading up to?

I was sick, sick and Jacob's thoughts just repeated back to me what I already knew.

What he was thinking, with a disgust that chilled me, was all true and the fact he was angry was right. Because this was madness. I registered the rest of my family arriving, moving threateningly between Jacob and the two of us, and for a moment I wondered why they were bothering to protect me at all.

But there was another stream of thoughts coming from nearby, thoughts that had none of the perfect, clear clarity of a vampire or the fierce, unpredictable passion of a werewolf. And that meant somewhere nearby there was a human. A human who was seeing everything and was appalled and afraid. It was Marie Swan and she was behind the tree to my left. She was going to get caught in the middle of Jacob's morphing...

I sprang forward and before Marie had even had time to register I was in front of her, yanked her away from Jacob and behind my family. But then something else caught my attention. Jacob had seen Marie. His mind was suddenly centred around her as if she were the most important thing in the world and I was assailed with images of the two of them together, things which hadn't happened yet.

He'd just imprinted.

Different emotions battled for control within me. Relief, for Bella and for Jacob, that he didn't love her anymore, or at least not in _that _way. Fear in case Bella was hurt by him not loving her anymore. But also fear for Marie because, even though I liked Jacob, that didn't change the fact werewolves could be temperamental and dangerous.

I locked eyes with Jacob and tried to put as much understanding into my expression as possible. And it worked. I saw him relax, saw him push Seth away and snap something to Sam. Through his mind I saw that what he'd said was

"_It's alright. I'm not going to attack anyone."_

Sam wasn't sure whether to believe him or not. He didn't go back to his human form. And then...

Marie

"Marie?" Bella gasped when she saw me, her beautiful face a mask of horror. "What are you doing here?"

I didn't speak. I couldn't. I was amazed I was still on me feet from where her fiancée had dropped me after he'd basically flown across several metres of forest floor holding onto me. And that wasn't even the _most _frightening thing that had just happened. I could still see that huge black wolf just in front of me. And even though I'd barely understood a word of Jacob's conversation with my cousin I had managed to pick up that he'd said he was going to kill Edward and he didn't want her to do something whilst she was still human. As if one day she wouldn't be human. Oh God...

"What are you?" I managed to hiss at Bella and I saw her flinch.

"I can explain this", she whispered.

"Well do it."

"Not - not here." Her eyes travelled to Jacob, who at least seemed to have calmed down from his irrational rage. Right now that didn't comfort me very much. I was suddenly flooded with emotion. Anger. Frustration. Terror. Because something was going on here and nobody would tell me anything.

"Forget it!" I yelled at her and I turned and raced away, away from all of them. I never wanted to see anybody in that clearing again. Jacob wasn't what I'd thought he was. Nor was Edward. And worst of all was Bella, Bella my friend since I'd been born, who I'd always, always known I could trust. And now I couldn't.

I was weeping as I ran, but I managed to brush away the tears before I got back to the wedding.

Bella

"Marie's not going to tell anyone, is she?" I asked Edward.

"I don't think so. That's not what she's planning at the moment."

I sighed, wanting to run my hands over my face or through my hair but not able to because I'd smear off my make-up or cause my hair to fall out of its do. Suddenly I wished this wedding was over. Edward smiled, seeming to read my thoughts even though I knew he couldn't.

"You'd best get back to the wedding, Mrs Cullen. Everyone will be wondering where the bride is."

"But what about Jacob?" I glanced at Jake and saw that he was still looking upset. Actually, his expression was more or less a mirror of what my cousin's had been when she'd raced off a moment ago.

"Jacob..." Edward sighed. "Look Bella...just go back to the wedding."

Jacob

"Just go back to the wedding", the leach said and I laughed bitterly. I hadn't forgotten what he was planning on doing and the way he treated Bella like some kind of nuisance toddler at the same time as he planned his fun with her just made it rankle more.

"You really have a problem with this whole keeping secrets from her thing, don't you? What harm would it do if you let her know the truth?"

"I'd thank you to keep quiet", he told me and Bella said

"What is it, what's going on?" I grimaced at her. Or maybe it was a grin. I wasn't quite sure what emotion my face was showing actually.

"I just imprinted."

She stopped to think for a moment and then gasped

"On Marie?"

"If that's her name, that girl who was here, then yep." And it was a beautiful name, I thought, just like her. "Who is she?"

"She's my cousin, Jake." Bella swallowed, different expressions running across her face - anger, relief, sadness...

"Bella", Edward cut in, "we'd better be getting back to the wedding. It's almost time for the honeymoon."

That distracted me for a minute.

"So Marie saw all of that and you're just going to go straight to your...honeymoon without explaining anything to her?" Jeez, how selfish could you get?

"We've booked it", the leach said. "We don't want to wait." _Oh, I'll bet you don't, _I thought, trying to make my thoughts as loud as possible.

"Look, if you think this changes anything..." I said, moving towards him threateningly.

"It does, Jacob, come on", Seth said, starting tugging at me again.

"He'll kill her!" I protested. "You stupid, selfish, sex obsessed..."

But they dragged me off. Edward turned away without a word and Bella murmured "I'm sorry, Jake" before walking off too.

"Wait", I begged to Sam. "They're not even going to explain things to Marie! Let me go and do it!" I became a wolf so I could hear his response.

_No. Too much has gone wrong at this wedding. We're not going back._

I had no choice but to obey. But all I could think of was Marie. I could sense she felt frightened and very, very alone. And there was nothing I could do about it.

It killed me. A few minutes into imprinting and I was already feeling the downsides. And really that was just my luck.

Marie

I got back to the wedding as quickly as I could because now I knew what was out there, I didn't feel safe being on my own. The dancing was still going on when I reached the house but I didn't stop to speak to anyone, locking myself in the Cullen's bathroom and sobbing quietly for a while. I wasn't crying out of fear, though I was terrified and that wasn't helping things, but because of Bella. She'd always been my best friend and I'd loved her and trusted her and now...and now...

She was shutting me out. But not just shutting me out, she was in danger. And because of her the rest of us might be in danger too. There was some kind of...monster out there, or more than one kind judging by the way Edward had moved so fast when he'd grabbed hold of me. That definitely hadn't been human. Did Charlie suspect something? Was that why he disliked Edward so much? Could that even be why he'd been so determined to find Jacob, because he thought he'd been kidnapped by those monsters? Maybe that was even what had happened, and Jacob had been turned into a monster too. Because there had been something up with him...

And the monsters weren't even the only thing I had to worry about. There had been that strange phone call as well.

When I came out from the bathroom I found the Cullen's house almost empty. Alice, who was cleaning up some mess, told me that I'd missed saying farewell to Edward and Bella. All the guests seemed to have left. I couldn't say I was sorry. I just wanted to get back to the relative safety of Charlie's house.

So I brushed aside Alice's attempts at conversation and that was what I did.


	9. Chapter 9 - Swans

Jacob

I felt myself morph midstride and as I ran I raised my head and howled because I loved the feeling of being a wolf, of running against the wind and feeling my fur blow back against my hot skin, of smelling everything and hearing everything as if I were some lame superhero. I loved it. And when I morphed I could let out my anger in running and when I became human again I'd feel almost normal.

Almost. But angry as I was today, I didn't think being a wolf would help much. I was practically a prisoner here. Sam wouldn't let me see Marie. He said that to cross over to Cullen territory when the treaty was in danger of being broken was dangerous and would make our relations with the Cullens more strained. I couldn't care less about the stupid Cullens. As if I didn't have reason enough to hate them already, now they were keeping me from seeing my imprint.

And I missed her. Not that I'd ever actually spoken to her, or even seen her more than once, but I still missed her. I dreamt about her sometimes. I imagined what she'd look like when she was happy and smiling rather than scared and confused. I had imaginary conversations with her in my head.

The old me would have been disgusted at myself for being so pathetic. But now, I didn't care about being pathetic. I just wanted to see her again.

I'd become one of the wolves who'd imprinted. The ones who's irritating, assured calm used to annoy me so much. But I wasn't calm. None of them had been kept from their imprint the way I was being kept from mine.

_Shut up, Jake, _Leah thought from nearby. _No one wants to hear about your messed up love life one more time._

_Hypocrite, _I thought back. _Maybe if you could get yourself out of your head for one minute you'd be better able to stomach everyone else's thoughts._

_You're the biggest whiner. Not me. _Her thoughts were angry. But then, when weren't they angry? And when weren't mine angry? No wonder we fought all the time.

I reached the clearing where the others waited.

_Cut it, guys, _Sam thought to me and Leah, even though neither of us had said anything to each other for a minute or so. Leah winced at the word "guys."

_S'up, boss? _Paul thought. Sam looked at Seth and I felt several of their thoughts flicker nervously to me.

_Charlie called round till he found Billy at my house, _Seth thought. _He's all flipped out. Guess Edward and Bella finally returned from their honeymoon..._

My chest tightened. This was it. This was what I'd been waiting for. What had happened to Bella? Obviously she was alive, if she'd come back, which was good, but...had she actually been to see Charlie? And Marie? She couldn't be allowed near Marie if she was a vampire now...but maybe she wasn't a vampire...?

That was all I had time to think before Seth added

_Yeah, bro and here's the bad news. Charlie talked to her, said she sounded bad. She told him she's sick. Carlisle got on and told him Bella picked up some rare disease in South America. Said she's quarantined. Charlie's going crazy cause even he's not allowed to see her. He says he doesn't care if he gets sick, but Carlisle won't bend. No visitors. Told Charlie it was pretty serious, but that he's doing everything he can. Charlie's been stewing about it for days, but he's only called Billy now. He said she sounded worse today._

_What about Marie? _I thought frantically. Bella must be a vampire, but I didn't like that she was HERE, in Forks, barely any distance at all from my imprint. And she was a hungry newborn...

I couldn't imagine the Bella I knew ever hurting Marie. But she wouldn't _be _the Bella I knew.

_I don't know. He didn't say._

Suddenly I was filled with rage. Not only had the Cullens broken the treaty by biting a human, they'd endangered everyone in Forks by doing it. And I still thought he'd manipulated Bella into wanting to be a vampire. He'd destroyed her, my best friend. Turned her into a cold, inhuman monster like he was. After he'd almost killed her by having sex with her, of course.

He couldn't get away with this. He couldn't. It didn't matter that I wasn't in love with Bella anymore. I hated him more than ever because he was endangering Marie as well as Bella.

_Well, what are we waiting for? _I asked into the silence. _The treaty's broken._

_We have no proof - maybe she _is _sick._ Sam thought.

_OH PLEASE!_

_O.k., so the circumstantial evidence is pretty strong. Still...Jacob...are you sure this is what you want? Is this really the right thing? We all know what she wanted._

_The treaty doesn't mention anything about victim preferences, Sam!_

_Is she really a victim? Would you label her that way?_

_Yes! And what about all the others, the people Bella's gonna end up killing cuz she can't control herself?_

_Jake, _Seth thought, _they aren't our enemies._

_Shut up, kid! Just cause you've got some kind of sick hero worship thing going on with that bloodsucker, it doesn't change the law. They are our enemies. They are in our territory. We take them out. I don't care if you had fun fighting alongside Edward Cullen once upon a time._

_So what are you going to do when Bella fights with them? Huh, Jacob? _Seth demanded.

_She's not Bella anymore._

_You gonna be the one to take her down? _He felt me wince. _No, you're not. So, what? You gonna make one of us do it? And then hold a grudge against whoever it is forever?_

_I wouldn't..._

_Sure you wouldn't. And what about Marie? How will you feel when you're with her and she talks about how sad she is her cousin died and you'll have to know it was your fault! _Seth added cruelly.

_Shut up! _I sprang at him. I didn't want to think about it.

_Silence, both of you. _Sam glared at us. _Jacob, I have to think about what's best for this pack. Times have changed since the Treaty was made. I don't believe the Cullens are a danger to us. And we know they won't be here much longer. Once they've gone our lives can return to normal._

_Then I'll leave again, _I thought.

_Ah, Jacob, don't do that! _Several voices chorused. _What about Marie?_

_I'll come back. A long time from now. If Bella hasn't killed Marie by then._

_She won't..._

_Whatever. Bye._

I waited until I was away from them before I became a human again. Then I whooped. I'd hidden my thoughts from them. They had no idea what I was about to do...

O.k., so I wasn't totally stupid.

I got that what I was about to do was dangerous. I even got that I might not make it back from this. And that was why, before I drove my bike up to the stupid lair that the Cullens inhabited, I stopped in front of Charlie's house. The whole place had an abandoned look about it, as if Charlie and Marie had packed up and left. But I knew that they hadn't. Charlie wouldn't leave Forks when Bella was ill. They'd be in that house somewhere. So I bit back my nervousness and I walked up to the front door and knocked three times.

I was in luck. There was a shuffling of feet on the other side and then the door was opened by Marie, looking exhausted. My heart went out to her as I imagined what it would feel like to be told my beloved cousin had a tropical disease, if I didn't know what the truth was, and I felt a jolt of anger, this time not against Edward but against Bella. What right did she have to mess around with the lives of everyone who cared about her just because she didn't want to end up older than her boyfriend? Had she even _considered _what she was going to do to Marie and Charlie with that?

"What are _you _doing here?" Marie was radiating hostility and I guessed that last time she'd seen me, I must have looked like kind of a psycho. For a moment I wondered what to say, but the choice was obvious: she was my imprint and lying to her would have felt like a colossal betrayal.

"I came to see you", I said.

"_Me?" _She drew back into the house at that, pushing the door almost completely closed so I could only see her through a small gap. "Why?"

"I just wanted to ask how you were." Again, I realised I sounded creepy, but when I opened my mouth to lie, I couldn't make words form. I guessed this was one of the downsides to imprinting.

"I'm fine." She looked like she was fighting some kind of internal battle with herself and finally, she opened the door wider again and asked "Jacob, what's wrong? You seem kind of-", she shrugged ,as if looking for the word whilst I thought _she remembered my name!_

"I'm alright too", I muttered. "Look there's...something I have to do. Once I've done that I'll come back and talk to you." I realised she probably didn't want me to, but my head was spinning now and I couldn't seem to think straight and come up with anything better to say than that. "Bye", I added.

As I got back on my bike and started the engine, I could feel her eyes on me.

I reached 420 WoodCroft Ave Forks W A Forsington five minutes later. I wasn't sure what to expect but there was no sign of life around the big white crypt. Of course, they knew I was there.

The door opened before my hand touched it and the doctor stood there, his hazel eyes grave.

"Hello Jacob", he said, his voice calmer than I would have expected. "How are you?"

"I heard Bella made it back alive", I said. That had been my plan. To see Bella and judge for myself if she was a danger. And if she was...well, I hadn't really got that far yet.

"Er, Jacob, it's not really the best time. Could we do this later?"

And then a voice that I recognised, with a wrench, as Bella's, cracked and rough, called out

"Come in please, Jacob." The doctor sighed and moved aside.

They were all here, I saw as my eyes adjusted to the gloom of the room, all together, but that was not what froze me where I stood and had my jaw dropping to the floor. It was Edward. It was the expression on his face. His eyes were half-crazed. He didn't look up to glare at me. He stared down at the couch beside him with an expression like someone had lit him on fire. His hands were rigid claws at his sides.

I wondered what could make him like that and my eyes moved to Bella.

I saw her at the same moment that I caught her scent. Her warm, clean, human scent. She was half-hidden behind the sofa, her arms wrapped around her knees. There were deep circles under her eyes, dark circles that jumped out because her face was all haggard. Was she thinner? Her skin seemed tight - like her cheekbones might break right through it. There was something about her fingers and wrists that looked so fragile it was scary. She _was _sick, just like they'd told Charlie. Very sick.

The blonde leach, the showy one, Rosalie, cut in front of her, blocking my view in an odd, protective way. I stared at her, confused. As far as I'd been able to tell, Bella was _afraid _of Rosalie. But now, as she looked up at her, there was no fear in her eyes.

"Bella, what's wrong?" I whispered.

"I'm so glad you came to see me today, Jacob", she said, not answering my question.

"What is it, Bella?" I insisted, wrapping my hands around her cold, fragile fingers.

Instead of answering, she glanced around the room like she was asking for permission for something. Six pairs of anxious yellow eyes stared back at her. Finally she muttered

"Help me up, Rose?" The blonde glared at me like she wanted to rip my throat out, but she moved forward to put an arm under Bella's shoulders and lift her to her feet.

And I saw what had happened. For a moment I just stared in sickened horror. Edward moaned and pressed his face into the couch, but I ignored him. If I turned to him right now I'd kill him, I knew that. But then he whispered

"The door! Look at the door..."

Slowly, wondering what an earth the sick, perverted monster was talking about now, I turned to look at the front door, still hanging open where Carlisle had left it.

And then I gasped.

I don't know how it had happened. I don't know how she got here and I don't know how they missed her scent, but somehow Marie Swan was standing in the Cullens doorway, staring at the bloated stomach of her cousin with all of the horror I had been a moment ago.

Shit.


	10. Chapter 10-The Cullens and a Baby

Marie

I couldn't tear my eyes away from Bella. I couldn't even believe what I was seeing. I'd been told she had a tropical disease but I'd had no idea it was this bad. And the more I stared at her, the more I became certain. She didn't have a tropical disease. She was pregnant. That bulge around her stomach was a baby bump - a sick, distorted version of one, anyway.

"What happened to you?" I whispered. I didn't have to speak loudly to get her attention because everyone was staring at me anyway; I guessed that was because I wasn't meant to be here.

"What are you doing, Marie?" my cousin croaked.

"I followed Jacob", I said. "Are you...pregnant?"

Bella sighed and put a hand to her stomach.

"It wasn't planned, Marie. But now-" and her face lit up with a smile that contrasted with her sickly, unnatural appearance-"now it's like it's meant to be..."

There was a snort to her right. I followed the direction of it and my eyes found Jacob. He wore an angry, contemptuous expression, similar to the one he had at the wedding. And it seemed to be Bella's words that had made him so angry. My cousin's face had turned in the same direction as mine.

"Please Jake, Marie", she said, an edge of desperation in her voice. "Support me in this? I need you both on my side."

I wondered what she was talking about. Why would she need us on her side? She obviously didn't need _me_. I'd never felt more shut out of Bella's life than I did right now. I couldn't believe she'd let me think she had some dangerous tropical disease when actually she was pregnant. Was she afraid Charlie and I would disapprove? I'd never judge my cousin; she ought to know that.

I took a deep breath and I walked towards Bella , crouching beside her on the sofa.

"What's going on?" I asked. "You can tell me. But please don't keep anything from me, if you want me to help you."

I looked into her eyes and hoped desperately she'd do as I said.

Time lapse

"Are you being sarcastic?" I asked, ten minutes later. "Because I can't even tell."

"She's telling the truth, Marie", Jacob growled from beside me and I jumped. I hadn't realised how close he was. His voice really did sound like a wolf's growl. "I can prove it to you by morphing if you like."

"No, you don't have to do that..." I said hastily. "Not yet, anyway." I paused. The only reason I was even considering that what Bella was saying might be true was because of what I'd seen at the wedding. There had been wolves there, wolves who seemed to be trying to hold Jacob back from attacking Edward. And then there was the speed with which Edward had leapt to Bella whilst he was holding me. And of course there was the bizarre warped pregnancy Bella seemed to have going on now. That wasn't natural; I'd never seen anything like it.

"So if I say I believe you", I said slowly, "and I agree that Edward's a vampire and Jacob's a werewolf-" and if that really was true, I couldn't help being hurt she hadn't told me-"then I still don't see why you need me and Jacob on your side."

The doctor - vampire – man - Edward's dad, stepped into the centre of the room at that point.

"We have some...concerns...about what it is Bella's carrying", he said. "Nothing like this has ever been seen before. Therefore, in the minds of myself, Edward, Jasper and Alice it would be better if the...pregnancy if that is what it can be called, was ended. However Bella disagrees." Edward, who I'd already noticed was curled up by Bella with his hands clenched as if he was in pain, moaned softly. "Furthermore, Rosalie, Emmett and Esmee have taken her side and will not allow us to take steps...against Bella's will...to get rid of it."

When Edward's dad said that I glared at him and moved closer to Bella. Whether she wanted to get rid of the baby was _her _choice not his. And truthfully, if I'd been Bella, I don't think I'd have been comfortable getting an abortion in this situation either, although I could see why Edward and Carlisle might want her to.

"That's why I need you on my side, Marie", Bella whispered. "I can't take any more people telling me I'm wrong right now. I won't change my mind but I don't want to have to fight you as well as the others." Her eyes were pleading.

"I'm on your side", I said, squeezing her frail, trembling hand. I was still hurt by how much she'd kept from me, but she was my cousin and I loved her...and it was her right to have her own baby if she wanted to.

"Jake?" She didn't look up at him as she said it. She already seemed prepared for him to say no.

"I guess I'll agree with Marie, Bella." His voice was gruff. "I'm on your side. Though I'll have to go and report this to the pack. I don't really have a choice."

"Of course", the doctor said, nodding.

"But I'll come back." For some reason, Jacob was looking at me. "Are you gonna stay here?"

"I guess." I didn't know why he cared. But then he moved closer to me and as he walked past, our hands brushed and tingles shot up my spine. I didn't know why. It was just a quick touch.

_Pull yourself together, Marie, _I told myself. _It was fine to have a harmless little crush from a distance, but now you actually know him, it's just creepy. Besides, he obviously loves Bella._

I was still surprised Jacob had sided with Bella, actually. When I'd first come in he'd seemed utterly contemptuous of her happiness about the pregnancy. He'd only seemed to change his mind after I said that _I _was on her side.

_Don't flatter yourself. He barely even knows you._

Maybe it wasn't just the evidence of my eyes that made me believe Bella's story. Maybe it was the fact that somewhere, deep down, I _knew _that Jacob Black was a werewolf, just as I knew in my gut that I wasn't one.

And maybe I was more like my cousin than I realised. Because the fact my crush wasn't human didn't put me off even the tiniest bit.

Which was a shame really. Because the sooner I got over Jacob, the better.

Time lapse

"They're frightened. They don't know what it is Bella's carrying and they think it could be harmful. They want to destroy it," said one voice.

"Well then...thank you, Jacob. Thank you for breaking away and coming back to warn us."

I opened my eyes. I hadn't even realised I'd been asleep. How had that happened?

"It wasn't easy", Jacob's voice answered gruffly. "But like Edward said, I was the real Alpha. I just had to realise it. Or something." I couldn't see Jacob but I could almost hear him shrug after that sentence. It bothered me that I knew him so well I could tell when he was doing that. How could I? I barely knew him at all really... "Seth and Leah came with me. I didn't want them to, but they did anyway."

"Well, again...thank you. You're a true friend, Jacob."

"It wasn't just for _her _I was doing it", Jacob muttered and I wondered what he meant. _Her _must be Bella so...who else was he doing it for if it wasn't just Bella?

But the two speakers didn't say anymore. Instead, the door to the main room opened and first Jacob, then Carlisle, walked through, Jacob flinching slightly as he was hit by the smell of all those vampires again.

"What's happened?" I asked, sitting up from the sofa I'd fallen asleep on and smoothing down my hair, which was sticking up everywhere.

"My pack want to destroy Bella", Jacob said shortly. "They ordered me to help them, but I resisted and ran away to warn you all."

I stared at him in horror.

"So...they're going to come and kill us all?" I moved protectively closer to Bella.

"Probably. But we'll fight them and win. You don't need to worry." Jacob smiled in a way that I thought was meant to be reassuring, but I didn't feel reassured. I was a human. I wouldn't be able to stand against werewolves. Visions of having to stand to the side doing nothing whilst Bella and Jacob were murdered danced before my eyes and I winced. I'd never let that happen. I'd attack them myself before I'd see them kill Bella, even if it meant death for me. Standing aside and doing nothing WASN'T an option.

"You don't have to stay here, Marie", Carlisle said gently.

"No, I want to". I'd already called Charlie and told him I was staying over at a friend's. He'd accepted that, even though he had to know I'd yet to make any friends in Forks who weren't right now inside this house. It was still the Summer Holidays, so I hadn't actually met many people yet like I would have if school had been on. But in any case, going away and wondering all the time if my friends were dying right now was the only thing worse than actually watching them die.

"The pack won't harm her, anyway", Jacob said, looking significantly at Carlisle.

I wondered why not. Chivalry? Not wanting to hurt someone so much weaker than themselves? I really wished Jacob and the others would stop keeping things from me. I was about to snap at them about it, but then there was a cracking sound and Bella clutched her stomach. Her baby had broken one of her _bones. _After that we were all distracted.

Time lapse

It was weird but it was hard to think of anything I could talk about in this situation. The others seemed fine sitting in silence, but it meant I had nothing to distract me from my thoughts of being ripped apart by werewolves, so I'd have preferred having something to say.

"How was the Honeymoon?" I asked Bella. "Apart from...you know..." I gestured at her stomach.

She smiled and somehow it made her face look even more haggard, stretching the skin painfully over the bones.

"It was brilliant, Marie. You should see it sometime. It was in Rio, but Edward has his own island..."

Forgot I was dealing with millionaires for a moment. I wondered how they'd even managed to get so rich. I was sure doctor's like Carlisle weren't paid _that _well.

I thought again how my wedding and honeymoon and all that were going to pale in comparison to Bella's when I eventually had them.

"Were you pregnant before you married?" I asked my cousin.

"No."

I sighed. They didn't seem to want to talk. Jacob had gone out on patrol. I was tired.

"Is there somewhere I can sleep?"

"She can have my bed", Edward muttered. He still looked like someone was torturing him.

Carlisle showed me where Edward's room was. A huge apricot coloured bed dominated the room and I perched on it gingerly, trying not to think about why someone who didn't need to sleep would have a double bed in his room. I decided I'd sleep in my clothes - I could probably borrow someone else's for tomorrow - and I climbed under the covers reluctantly. Sleeping in Edward Cullen's bed felt so intimate somehow that I didn't really want to do it. But there was nowhere else so I closed my eyes and tried to drift off. I hoped I didn't dream of Edward. That would be wrong on so many levels.

But it was Jacob who invaded my dreams that night.


	11. Chapter 11-The Familiar Face

Marie

"Are you alright, Marie?" Jacob asked as soon as I came down the stairs. From his concerned expression, I realised I must look terrible and my cheeks flamed. I'd barely slept at all last night and this morning I felt kind of sick, so I wasn't surprised I wasn't looking my best, but still. I didn't want Jacob to see me at my worst. However silly and irrational that was.

I deliberately didn't think of the dreams I'd had about him last night.

I was surprised he was back in the house.

"Aren't you meant to be on patrol?" I asked.

"The others are handling it. I came back here to check on everything. Want some toast?" He gestured to a large pile of carefully buttered bread that looked like something from an advert, on a plate beside him. My mouth watered and I tried to work out when I'd last eaten. Not for ages, I was sure.

"Yes, please." I was too hungry right now to be afraid of Jacob, so I sat down on the sofa beside him and he smiled his warm, genuine smile at me. I still couldn't get over how beautiful he was. Everything about him seemed to draw my eye, from his rumpled brown hair that I just wanted to reach out and run my hand over, to his buff, muscled frame which could only be rivalled by boys who were gym addicts. It was like...everything about him was in harmony. Like the way he looked reflected the way he was and in a good way. I told myself to stop looking at him. He was in love with my cousin. But it was difficult. "Does it feel strange?" I asked, out of the blue. "Not being part of Sam Uley's pack anymore and not having to take his orders?" Then I winced. Of all the stupid things to say. That probably wasn't something he wanted to talk about. I didn't think _I'd _want to talk about that with a virtual stranger. He snorted.

"It feels great. You have no idea how awful it was, having nine other wolves read your thoughts all the time. Even the ones you hate, like Paul. I couldn't be happier to be free of Sam's pack. And Sam's kind of suffocating himself. I mean...I guess that's not really fair. He tries to be a good alpha and make things as easy for the rest of us as possible but sometimes...I dunno, he can kind of make them harder. Like with Leah...well, I think we've actually been fighting _less _without him keeping on telling us _not _to fight. Anyway, what am I saying? I'm talking too much." He smiled at me and I wished my heart wouldn't flutter every single time he did that. It was getting crazy. "Tell me about you."

So I did. Somehow, because he was such a good listener, I ended up not just telling him about my home and family and friends but also about the reason I'd had to come here in the first place and he looked outraged.

"That's illegal, Marie! Couldn't you call the police?"

"We did talk to them, but they didn't do anything. I suspect they'd been bribed." That made Jacob look even more shocked.

"That...that...that's just terrible."

I shrugged. I didn't really want to talk about it anymore. It was terrible, but there was nothing I could do, unless they followed me here so I could have Charlie arrest them.

"Do you like living here?" I asked, to change the subject and we talked for a while, but not about anything that meaningful. After a while Jacob got up, saying Leah and Seth would be angry if he stayed here any longer.

I went to ask the others if I could borrow some clothes, since I was still wearing my crumpled dress from yesterday.

I tried not to think about Jacob anymore.

Time Lapse

There was nothing I could really do for Bella, so eventually I went back to Charlie's house. He'd have got suspicious, anyway, if I'd stayed out for more than a day. Charlie was busy watching sport on the television, so I took out my notebook and did more sketches. My fingers itched to shape Bella with the pencil, the way she looked now, all stretched and unnatural, but my mind still flinched away from thinking about it so instead I went back to my default.

Drawing Jacob.

I sketched his eyes and his hair and his hands. I was amazed by how much detail I could remember. I'd never really been one of those keen people observers who can tell you the eye colour of someone they met five minutes ago. But with Jacob...

I decided I'd had enough of my obsession with Jacob. Instead I drew Charlie. I could sketch him pretty accurately too because he was right in front of me. After that I drew my family, but that made me sad so I stopped and drew some animals. Geese in flight and a deer raising her head from grazing.

That was what I did whilst Charlie was there. But midway through my deer sketch, my uncle got a phone call telling him to come out to the police station. So he said goodbye to me and he left and then I was in the house on my own.

I decided to watch a DVD, since the TV was free now. But I hadn't even decided which one before there was a knock on the door, which I got up to answer.

It was a boy, one slightly older than me, with yellow hair and pale skin. I recognised him instantly.

"No", I whispered and I tried to slam the door but he kicked his foot in the way and then shoved past me.

"I'm here to collect your stuff", he said, looking around him with greedy eyes.

I couldn't believe he'd followed me here. We'd been so sure we'd escaped them and now...now here he was. The leader of the boys who'd been harassing my family. _Why? _I thought desperately. _Why _was it us he had to bother? Surely there was some other person he could steal from without the bother of having to come all the way to Forks? My skin crawled. This was something else, what they had against us. This was personal.

The boy wasn't paying me any attention. He was dismantling the television.

"My uncle's a policeman", I said. "He'll arrest you." It didn't come out as loudly as I'd wanted because I couldn't shake the awareness that, for the first time ever, I was in the house alone when these boys were here and it terrified me. But I know he heard because he twisted his head and glared at me.

"Call him then. I'll be gone by the time he gets here." His voice was gratingly familiar and I realised suddenly that he'd probably been the boy who'd phoned my cell at Bella's wedding and then hung up.

I didn't move to call Charlie. The boy was standing between me and the phone and my cellphone was still in my coat pocket, which was hanging in the hallway, also in the direction the boy was standing. But there was something that wasn't. Charlie kept a gun in the top drawer in this room. Slowly, trying not to give away what I was doing, I inched backwards, towards the chest of drawers, until I felt wood against my hands. The boy was intent on pushing the TV into his archetypal-burglar-black-sack and he didn't even glance up. I thought that was kind of stupid of him, but I wasn't complaining. So I pulled out the top drawer, closed my hand around the gun and brought it out in front of me, my finger hovering over what I assumed was the trigger. I really hoped it was, anyway. I'd never held a gun before.

"_Get. Out." _I breathed and this time he did look up.

"You always were the sassy one", he said, not looking particularly alarmed. "Fine, I'm leaving. But I'll be back." He hoisted the sack in the air and started to walk backwards to the door.

"_Not. With that", _I hissed. The sack still had the telly in it. What kind of pushover did he think I was? But he just ignored me and kept on walking, trying to scoop the dangling TV wires into the sack as he did so.

"Hey." I took a step closer, training the gun on his head. "Put that down."

"You wouldn't fire at me." He laughed.

"I would", I lied, walking towards him. But I must have been reasonably convincing, because he started moving faster. I darted after him, but then something brought me up sharp and I shrieked and fell forward with the momentum I'd been about to use to knock the sack from his hands. There was a bang and a scream and I hit the floor at a painful angle. For a moment I closed my eyes and wondered what had gone wrong.

When I opened them again, I knew. One of the trailing wires from the television was wrapped around my foot. That must have been the thing that tripped me up. But what really caught my eye was the boy. He was lying on the ground completely stained with red. And I realised the red was blood. And I realised that that blood was coming from somewhere around his shoulder. And I realised that this was because, when I'd tripped, I'd accidentally fired the gun.

Oh God.

Time Lapse

The ceiling here was painted white and that puzzled me. Surely a hospital had better things to spend money on than hiring workmen to come in with ladders and Dulux cans of white paint to scrape their brushes across the ceiling and make sure it was just as bland and white as the rest of the room? Nobody was going to die because the ceiling hadn't been painted, after all.

I sighed and fidgeted some more with my fringe. I was just finding things to complain about to distract myself; I knew it. I also knew that being here, in a hospital corridor on the floor below where the boy I'd shot was being operated on, probably wasn't the best idea. Sooner or later somebody was going to come out and question me and I didn't know what I was going to say. Would they believe me it was an accident? And that even if they didn't believe it was an accident, it was still self-defence?

Actually, I wasn't sure it _was_ self-defence. Neither this boy, nor any of his cronies, had ever shown any desire to physically hurt me; they'd simply marched into the house and taken stuff. Did shooting someone who was doing that legally count as self defence? I suddenly wished I was taking more useful courses at school. Like Law. Or Sociology and Psychology. Didn't they cover criminal law and stuff in those lessons? But instead I'd had to opt to do Film Studies, German and English. Not exactly useful.

Again, though, it was an accident. You couldn't be prosecuted for shooting someone accidentally...could you?

"Marie!" a voice called and I looked up, snapped out of my internal reverie. And instantly a smile flashed across my face. Jacob! Jacob Black was striding through the hospital corridors towards me, waving a hand in case I'd somehow managed to miss him. It occurred to me randomly, and irrelevantly, that he didn't need to do that because I wouldn't fail to spot Jacob even in the centre of a crowd. To me his face stood out from the world like a figure in an art scene that had been highlighted in yellow.

I really wished I would stop thinking about him like that.

When Jacob reached me he wrapped me in a skin-tingling hug.

"Are you alright? What exactly happened?"

I took a deep breath.

"How did you know I was here?" I asked first, thinking that explaining things might be easier if I knew exactly what he knew.

"Carlisle called and said you'd admitted a boy suffering from a bullet wound." He shrugged and I bit back surprise that Carlisle was here, working at the hospital. I'd somehow assumed he was full time caring for Bella now. But then I remembered the way Rosalie was acting around him, not letting him close to Bella and I guessed that being at his house might be slightly tense for him right now. "I came over to check on you. Thought you might be traumatised. I've never seen a bullet wound, but I'm guessing they're not pretty."

"They're not", I whispered and in response, he squeezed me tighter. But I knew I didn't deserve it. I wasn't the victim in this situation. "Jake"- it was the first time I'd called him Jake and the words were a delicious thrill in my mouth- "Jake, it was me who shot him!"

"What?" He peered down at my face, but he hadn't, I noticed, let go of me.

"You remember how I told you about those boys who drove my family up here?" I asked and then I explained everything.

"That wasn't your fault", he murmured and I felt a surge of relief that he didn't seem to be blaming me. And he still hadn't let go of me. But his words didn't make me feel any less guilty. I couldn't get it out of my head; the sound of that gunshot and the sight of the blood. Even though I hadn't meant to fire the gun, I could still call to mind the feeling of pushing the trigger, of releasing that bullet. It had been so..._easy. _That was what was really bothering me, I guessed. Flicking the switch and blowing through somebody's flesh, and for all I knew their organs, had felt no more personal or difficult than flushing a toilet chain. Violence wasn't supposed to be that easy. "Hey, you're shaking!" Jacob said and when I looked down at my hands I saw he was right. "It's okay! Carlisle says that idiot will be fine, though if I were you I wouldn't care if he wasn't..."

"I'm going to have nightmares tonight", I said with absolute certainty. Jacob's mouth opened again, probably to repeat that it wasn't my fault, but I cut across him.

"Jacob, why do you even care? Why did Carlisle call _you _about this? Why are you acting like I matter to you? I'm just a stranger..."

I couldn't believe I'd said that. It made me sound like I was accusing him of stalking me and I wasn't. But Jacob was looking at me seriously.

"Sit down", he said and I obediently took a seat on the plastic chair I'd been sitting on only a minute ago.

And he told me about imprinting.

I wasn't sure what to feel. Different emotions fought for control in my gut. The one that won was disappointment.

"So you don't actually like me for me?" I demanded. "You like me because you "imprinted" on me?"

"No, that isn't true", Jake objected. "Imprinting is kind of like love at first sight but I think it only happens with people you _would grow _to love anyway, if you got to know them well enough. I think I'd fall in love with you even if I wasn't a werewolf." He smiled at me.

"So you're ...in love with me?" I asked, just to make sure.

"Of course. Does that bother you?"

"Not really." I smiled. "It means I can do this."

And I moulded my lips to his.

"Hem-hem", somebody said a moment later. I broke away from Jacob, turned round and saw Charlie.

"Oh", I muttered, feeling a flush cover my face, but then I saw he was grinning.

"Hey, Marie! Carlisle told me what had happened and I came right over to make sure you were o.k.-but I can see you don't need me!"

I smiled in response, but when he turned to go I called out

"Wait!"

"What is it?"

"Are you going to ...get in trouble...for what happened with your gun?"

"No, it'll be o.k." He smiled and slapped my shoulder. "They won't blame _me_ down at the station. Won't blame you either. Any fool can see it was self-defence." He leant closer and whispered, "I'm just happy to see things go right for _one _of you."

Right? I thought. In what way were things going right for me? And then my stomach twisted because I realised he was talking about Bella. How he was happy that I'd found Jacob but he wished he knew what was happening with his _real _daughter. Charlie still thought she had a tropical disease. That was so awful. For a moment I was on the verge of telling him the truth, but the next minute I closed my mouth. It wasn't my secret to tell.

Jacob came to stand with us, slinging an arm around me and beaming at Charlie. But before I could really get comfortable like that, Carlisle walked up. He too smiled at our position, but then he looked grave.

"The boy is awake, Marie. He would like to talk to you."

"Um...", I stuttered.

"He has quite an interesting story to tell."

I sighed .

"Alright."

And I followed Carlisle.


	12. Chapter 12 -The Shaman

Marie

"Hello Marie", the boy said when I walked in, and I froze for a moment, my body quivering as I relived the moment when I'd shot him. But Jacob took my hand. It steadied me. I was suddenly grateful for the depth of emotional bond our imprint gave us; it would have taken me ages to calm down by myself and I'd have looked silly in front of everyone.

I studied him, the boy in the bed who had made my life and my family's life miserable. He was sitting up with the covers pulled over his shoulders, which was an odd gesture, seeming to imply _he _felt nervous around _me _now. Maybe he did; after all, I'd shot him. He smiled a toothlike smile when he saw me looking, but I still thought there was something nervous in it.

"Hello", I said.

"There's something I need to tell you."

"What's that?"

"I wasn't stealing your things for the reason you thought."

"What reason _were_ you stealing them for?"

He drew in a deep breath.

"I'm a werewolf."

My eyes went to Jacob and his went to mine and we both raised our eyebrows. _What? _He wasn't a werewolf...

"He's one of the Children of the Moon", Carlisle cut in.

Jacob and I looked at each other again. _Children of the Moon?_

"They're werewolves – a different kind of werewolf – that the Volturi have hunted almost into extinction."

I looked around the room, not feeling any less confused.

"But...what does this have to do with me?" I asked eventually.

"I dreamt about you", the wolf-boy said and I froze, seriously frightened now. He was the last person I ever wanted to be in the dreams of.

"What he means", Carlisle interrupted, "is that he is the shaman of his pack and the shaman occasionally dreams of a person whose conversion into a werewolf would be beneficial for the other wolves."

_And he dreamt of me?_

"Do you mean that the Children of the Moon can turn other people into werewolves...?" I asked, not sure I really wanted to know the answer.

"...with a bite, yes", Carlisle said.

Great. I shuddered.

"If you only came to my home so you could make me a werewolf, why am I still human?" I asked the boy, not quite daring to look at him.

"He came to check you out originally", Carlisle answered and I wondered why the werewolf couldn't seem to do any of his own speaking. "He wanted to see if his dream had been right and he decided it had. Stealing things was just a way for him to get a look at you. The Children of the Moon are vicious by nature and theft is a far more obvious means of contact for them than striking up a conversation on the street."

"But why didn't he...?"

"Because you reminded me of what I was like before I became a werewolf", the boy said suddenly and I jumped. "Your parents were like my parents. Your house was like my house. You reacted exactly the same way as I would if I'd been robbed. And looking at you made my heart melt."

"I think I should go now", I said. I'd had enough of this. So I took Jacob's hand, walked to the door and shut it behind me. And I tried not to think any more about that boy.

Time lapse

"Jacob, what is it?" I asked because all I could hear on the other end of the phone was heavy panting, like someone trying to hold back tears. But my cell had beeped that Jacob Black was calling me and even though it was the middle of the night I'd picked it up.

"Marie...I'm really sorry about this", he mumbled.

"What is it? Jacob, you're scaring me."

"Bella's dead".

"_What?" _I gasped. "Seriously?" And suddenly my face was wet and I realised there were teardrops on my cheeks. I wasn't in any actual doubt he was telling the truth.

"She died giving birth to _it." _His voice turned hard and hateful.

"Is the baby...?"

"It's fine. For now."

"Jacob. Don't do anything rash", I breathed.

"That thing killed my best friend and hurt my imprint. Nothing I did to it would be rash." And he hung up.

I swore softly. This was just great. I got dressed as quickly as I could and headed downstairs, until an obvious problem with my current plan of action hit me. I couldn't drive. I didn't have a bike anywhere in this house. And walking to the Cullens house would take hours which I didn't have.

In my head I silently cursed American towns where everyone got around by car, meaning there was no public transport. But there wasn't time for cursing so I went and shook Charlie awake.

I hoped the ends justified the means for what I was about to do.

Time lapse

"Marie, you can tell me what's going on", Charlie said for the hundredth time. I'd pulled him out of bed and got him driving the car to the Cullens house, but I still hadn't explained _why. _Just that it was important.

"You won't believe it until you've seen it", I muttered, also not for the first time. "Look, we're almost there. You can wait a few minutes."

I was right. Before I knew it we'd pulled up into the drive and I'd jumped out of the car and run for the door, assuming Charlie would follow after me. Not that it would be a bad thing if he didn't. I pounded sharply against the wood of the door, but there was no reply. I knocked harder.

"Open up!" I screamed. And then it did open, revealing Esmee on the other side.

"I'm so sorry, Marie", she whispered and then she saw Charlie and her eyes widened.

"Where's Jacob?" I asked, darting past her into the house and rushing off before I had a chance to hear her answer.

I found him in the main room. Rosalie was rocking the baby, smiling at it with an expression like the sun had just come out. Jacob was standing right behind them both, unnoticed, looking like he was getting ready to pounce.

"Jake." I put a hand on his shoulder. He stilled. And Rosalie turned at the sound and sprang to her feet.

"You!" she hissed to Jacob. "What are you doing?" He opened his mouth to reply but nothing came out. And then both of them stilled anyway, looking as if they were listening to some far away noise.

"It's a heartbeat", Jake whispered. "Bella's alive!"

I couldn't believe it. My cousin was alive?

But they both paused again, their faces darkening with whatever they were now listening to.

"Your filthy mutt packs coming!" Rosalie yelled.

"They're not mine!" Jacob turned around frantically, running a hand through his hair.

"Jacob! Rosalie!" a voice called from upstairs and they both took off. Rosalie tried to snatch up the baby but Jake seized her arm and yanked her up the stairs. I could hear her struggling and swearing at him. And I was left with the baby.

The baby that the wolves wanted to kill.

I could get it to the car. To Charlie. We could get out of here.

So I seized the infant, which nipped my arm, sending a spasm of pain through my body, but I ignored it and broke into a run, trying not to think what the consequences of being bitten by a half-vampire might be. And I reached the front door, where there was no sign of either Esmee or Charlie.

"Charlie!" I shrieked, frantic. And then I saw them. Lumbering through the darkness towards me, a pack of great werewolves. Their eyes glittering murderously, fixed on me.

And then they stopped.

A large brown wolf snarled and made as if to move forward, but he was halted by a look from the black wolf at the front. And then the black wolf became a tall, naked man while I stood frozen to the spot, horrified.

"Give me that child", the man hissed.

"So you can kill it?" I snorted. "I don't think so."

"Give it to me." He advanced. I backed towards the house.

"Jake's in there. He won't let you do this."

The man lunged for me, trying to snatch Bella's child out from my arms. It occurred to me that if he really wanted to kill it, he could just become a wolf again and then it would be much easier. True I'd probably get seriously mauled in the process. But he didn't care about that, surely?

"No." I held my ground. "You're not hurting this baby. It hasn't done anything to you. You'll have to knock me out before you get it away from me."

In the darkness behind me, there was a laugh.

"They won't do that", Rosalie said confidently.

"Why not?" I asked, thrown off balance for a moment by her sudden arrival.

"Because they aren't allowed to hurt another wolf's imprint."

"Oh." I looked up at the wolves triumphantly. "Then there is no way I'm letting you hurt this baby."

"We can still wrest it off you", Sam growled. Rosalie snarled in response, flashing her teeth at him and looking thoroughly inhuman.

"No you can't", a voice said and we all swivelled to face the boy standing behind the werewolves. The boy I'd shot.

Oh God.

"This infant is not a menace", he spoke, advancing towards us. "She will be more in control of herself than most vampires are, not less. Her powers will only be able to be used for good."

"How do you know?" Sam asked, eyes narrowed.

"Press your face to hers."

"I don't think that's a very good..."

"Let him, Marie."

I hated that he'd just called me by my name. I hated it so much I'd let Sam carry out his instructions before I'd realised what I was doing. Sam stepped back gasping.

"She - she showed me her thoughts..."

"She can do that." The shaman werewolf shrugged. "As you can see, she's benevolent."

"More benevolent than you, I bet", Rosalie hissed and I guessed Carlisle must have told her who this boy was. He just shrugged his shoulders.

"May I come in?"

The werewolves had slunk away. I was indebted to my worst enemy.

Shit.


	13. Chapter 13-Visits

Several Weeks Later

Marie

I couldn't believe my eyes when I opened the door and saw my four best friends standing there. Kathleen Westwood was a shy redhead who I'd protected from bullies once. Jude Jacob Rushworth, always known as JJ was a guy from my school who modelled part time and used to be my enemy before we became friends when we were nine. Main Red was a feisty, fiery girl who hated pretty much everyone at school besides me. And Claire Marks, probably my best friend of all, was a dreamy bisexual girl who people always said wasn't quite with it.

"What are you doing?" I gasped, pausing in between hugging them all. Kathleen opened her mouth but Main got in first.

"I missed you, Marie, so I came up to see you!" She strode into the house and headed towards the kitchen. "Got any food? I'm starving."

"I know, Main. You're always starving", I told her. It occurred to me she was kind of like the werewolves in that way, but I knew she couldn't be one because she didn't come from La Push. "How about you guys?" I asked the others.

"Kathleen's mum's moving here for her job", JJ said. It was kind of weird that, on the occasions they were together, I could always predict which of my friends would get in the first word. Main would be first and Kathleen would be last, with JJ before Claire. "So we hitched a ride with her." He leant casually against the wall, posing in a way that suggested he didn't know he was doing it. Since JJ had got his modelling job, he did that a lot.

"That's so great!" I grinned to Kathleen, taking her hands.

"I know." She grinned back at me, and I guessed she was happy to get a word in edgeways over the other three.

"How have you all been?" I looked round the room at my friends, still not quite believing they were all here. How had they even managed to carpool together? Sure Claire and Kathleen got on ok, but the others couldn't stand each other, I knew that. Before they could answer me, Jacob walked in and draped his arms across my shoulders.

"Hey", he said.

"Hey." JJ raised his eyebrows.

"Who are..."

"These are my friends from my old neighbourhood, Jake."

"Cool." Jake stepped away from me and clapped each of them on the back. They all looked at him with varying degrees of incredulity. Main gave him a long hard look. She was always talking about how she'd get any boyfriend who hurt me back somehow and I sighed because I couldn't explain to her why I was completely certain Jacob wouldn't hurt me.

"Well I guess we don't have to ask how things are going for _you, _Marie", Claire told me with a grin as soon as Jake had gone.

"No, me and Jacob are pretty happy." I smiled. "Though I still miss everyone at home."

"Well now _we're_ here." Claire laughed. "Everything's turning out pretty well for you."

Except for that boy from the Children of the Moon, I thought unhappily. But I didn't say it out loud.

The next minute there was a knock on the door and Sam Uley's wolf pack came bursting into the room.

"Sorry", Jacob muttered. "They demanded to come and discuss how this two packs thing was going to work here."

"That's ok." I sighed.

But then I noticed that some of the wolves had stopped short at the sight of my friends...

There was a long, awkward silence as the wolves took in my friends and my friends took in the wolves. And something about that silence was...weighted.

"Well", Sam said, laughing to cover the awkward moment, "there's rather more people here than we expected. Who are your friends, Marie?"

I introduced them quickly, keeping my eyes on the wolves as I did so. Had what I thought happened just happened? Had someone imprinted?

I thought Paul Lahote's eyes looked a bit glazed over, but I forgot about him as soon as I saw the way Leah was staring at JJ. As if the sun had come out. Wow then, I was happy for Leah. I knew she thought that she was some kind of freak like anomaly, that she couldn't imprint and couldn't have children, but obviously she'd been wrong...

JJ was looking at Leah too, a slight smile on his face. I remembered that the imprint of a wolf would start to feel something for them too, almost straight away – witness the way I'd kept daydreaming about Jacob – and I smiled some more.

"Would anyone like drinks?" I asked. "Because I'm going to get some." And I walked from the room, seeing the werewolves sit down at the table and begin talking to my friends, leaving them behind to get chatting. I opened the fridge door and removed a bottle of water and just as I was about to pour it, I heard the noise of the door opening.

"Claire?" I asked.

A knife pushed against my throat.

I gagged at the feel of the cold metal blade, trying to flinch away. And someone pressed a hand to my back and tried to steer me from the room. I opened my mouth to scream but they covered it with a palm. I bit into their skin, but it was tougher than I expected and my teeth couldn't break the surface. I thrashed with my body, but I was dragged through the back door that led to the garden and I felt a debilitating rush of terror. Who was this and what did they want? I went limp and whoever it was began to drag me faster. And then, without warning, I was dropped onto the ground. I rolled over the second I hit the concrete and looked up to see that werewolf. The one who I'd shot.

And then I really panicked.

He didn't look like he had last time I'd seen him. There was a wild, angry glint in his dark eyes and they singled in on me as if he was a wolf and I was a deer he was hunting. The knife in his hand flashed like a diamond. I flinched away, curling my body up over the ground.

Then he asked:

"Marie? Are you alright?"

"What do you think?" I spat out.

"Did I hurt you?"

He bent down to face me and I heard the noise of leaves crunching.

"I just wanted to ask you if you'd like to join my pack..."

"Why did that require pressing a knife to my throat?" I demanded, incredulous and still frightened.

There was a pause and I kept my gaze on the ground. I'd heard if you looked a dog in the eye it would see that as a challenge and attack you, so maybe a werewolf was the same.

"I should probably tell you", he said eventually. "When it's nearly a full moon we can get...aggressive for the sake of it."

"And is it nearly a full moon?" I whispered, because it wasn't as if I'd ever bothered noticing the moon much before.

"Yeah. That's why I used the knife. I'm sorry."

_This isn't making me want to become one of you_. That was what I thought, but I kept silent. Because he didn't need my consent to bite me and make me a werewolf and so it wouldn't be wise to provoke him.

"I have a life here", I said instead. "Why would I want to leave that to become one of your pack?"

"Because if you do, you'll have done something great. You'll have saved us. Think about that."

"I still haven't forgiven you for stealing from my family. I don't know if I want to help you."

"Then blame _me_." His face became passionate, intense, the face of a visionary. Not a psychopath. But I knew that a psychopath was what he was. "Don't blame my pack. Don't make _them_ pay for _me_ being out of control."

I finally allowed my gaze to travel upwards, which was a mistake. The boy's eyes locked onto mine intently.

"Can I think about it?" I asked, wanting desperately to escape from that gaze, that gaze that seemed to drag me towards the eyes it belonged to, like two halves of a magnetic core...

"Of course." He sat back on his haunches and I wondered why all of that excess aggression he claimed to feel when it was nearly a full moon seemed to have gone. I started to walk back to the house, but then I stopped, struck by how little I really knew about this wolf-shaman-thief who was stalking my life.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Alf."

Alf as in Alpha? Well, I guess it figured.

Author

Heyyyyyy. Sorry I haven't updated in ages. And also sorry about this chapter. The problem is I originally published this story on Quotev, a site where you can introduce new characters in stories with character introduction pages. That's why Marie's friends come into this story now slightly awkwardly. Anyways, hope you're enjoying it so far. Things are about to get complicated...


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